Durand - Where You Been All My Life?!?!

PCLIN · January 7, 2018, 3:11am

I love it, never travel without one.

cjsavino · January 7, 2018, 1:43pm

And make sure to read the instructions. Have seen people try to use the slots in the wire after it was inserted into the cork.

Jay_Miller · January 7, 2018, 1:54pm

Love it, use it on older bottles only. The hardest part has been acclimating myself to the fact that bottles from the '90s can be considered old.

J_a_y_H_a_c_k · January 7, 2018, 2:07pm

The proof is in the pudding, so my Durand story as proof.

I go to a restaurant in New York and bring a bottle of wine. I don’t recall what it was, but probably 15+ years old, so I also brought the Durand. Thew waiters were used to people bringing their own wine, but got a real chuckle out of someone insisting on using his own cork screw. As I used it, I kept seeing other waiters out of the corner of my eye staring at me and giggling. Cork extracted with no problems. - - - 15 minutes later - - - a waiter comes to my table and says “Excuse me sir, but we have a problem cork over there, could we borrow your corkscrew?” Not wanting to lose the opportunity to be a TOTAL GEEK, I responded, “It will take me too long to teach you how to use it.” I then got up, walked across the restaurant, pulled the Durand case out of my suit jacket pocket (perfect fit, by the way, I wonder if that was deliberate), and opened the bottle, after which I presented the cork to the diners with my best imitation of an over the top sommelier.

Or, to put it another way, ask a Durand user how may times he/she has said “Dammit, why didn’t I bring my Durand!”

Paul_Jaouen · January 7, 2018, 3:58pm

A cheaper alternative this time of year is to leave the wine outside and wait until it freezes and pushes the cork right out.

D_Mowe · January 7, 2018, 4:57pm

10+ yr old bottles it is automatic for me

SeanHarding · January 7, 2018, 5:18pm

I think Jay’s restaurant story sold it for me.

Rich_Brown · January 7, 2018, 5:36pm

It’s seriously so worth the money if you open bottles 10+ years old.

My only regret is waiting as long as i did to pull the trigger.

Paul_Fountain · January 8, 2018, 8:57am

If you’ve taken the trouble to acquire the sort of bottles you’d use the Durand on, the Durand is comparatively tiny investment to ensure maximum ease of opening.
I’m glad I have one, even if the bulk of my wines are under screw cap these days.

Mark_Mason · January 8, 2018, 4:05pm

I looked back through the Berserker Day sales but did not see the Durand offered. I thought they offered free shipping for one?

Rich_Brown · January 8, 2018, 4:20pm

Mark, they offer free shipping when you buy the Durand directly through their site (at least they did a few months ago)

cjsavino · January 8, 2018, 7:22pm

BD -2011

Daniel_Moritz · January 8, 2018, 7:51pm

Mine gets a ton of mileage. Best wine accessory I own.

Richard_Albert · January 8, 2018, 9:08pm

Once gain, it saved a bottle.
Opened 1977 Fortino Cab yesterday removing the cork in one piece which would not have been possible without it. The narrow and sharp screw secured the cork which started slipping as soon as the prongs touched the cork.

Rich_Brown · January 10, 2018, 1:32am

Total side note Richard, but how was that Fortino Cab?? I have 2 mags of 74 petite sirah that I picked up on the cheap that I haven’t tried yet. A positive review on the cab would leave me more hopeful on the PS

John_Davis · January 10, 2018, 1:38am

Neal.Mollen:

SeanHarding:

Every time I’ve considered buying one, I’ve stopped at the purchase page. It’s hard for me to pull the trigger at that price point (probably not very logical in the context of the overall amount I spend on wine and wine stuff, but I never claimed to be perfectly logical…).

For those of you who have a Durand, do you use it on all bottles, or just the ones with questionable corks?

I keep the thing in its cork “case” in a drawer, so out of laziness I only use it for older bottles. If the wine is ~10-15 years old or younger, I am more likely just to grab the Creuset. But if it is older than that I will invariably grab the Durand. I am with you on the price; it seems ridiculously high for what it is. But the damn things works. And how many tools will you use dozens/scores of times in a year that works better and more reliably than anything else on the market? Seriously, the price is long in my rearview; I love the thing and if I lost it I would buy another in a heartbeat

Same.

PCLIN · January 10, 2018, 4:19am

This alone makes it worth the price. I also have a cheaper version called ‘Monopol Ah-so’ but it’s just not the same.

andy_velebil · January 10, 2018, 4:24am

I open a ton of old Ports and the Durant is a life saver. Used to be about 90% rate of broken corks on those old bottles, now it’s down to about 10%. Worth every penny for it.

Brian_Tuite · January 10, 2018, 3:36pm

Thank Andy

Blake_Brown · January 12, 2018, 6:47pm

I`m a big fan as well. I use it for almost all corks, not just for older ones. I learned my lesson buy using another corkscrew for a young wine only to have it split in half and then going to the Durand. Great invention.